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Pride Blog Series Day 20 – Mac Scotty McGregor

Some ask why is there a need for a Gay Pride parade or event. The original reason was a civil rights march. Yet even though we are no longer dealing with the riots of Stonewall we still don’t have full equality. My hope is that one day it can be called a Pride event for all, not gay Pride, not LGBTQ Pride. Moreover, one day many of us hope that there is no such thing as “gay marriage” or “same sex marriage”\- it will just be marriage. I believe that all people want to be to be respected for who they are and to be able to walk with pride and not be shamed. The geek, the short, the heavy, the person with a disability, the person of color, the bi, the gay, the straight, the trans, the queer, the intersexed, the cis-gendered,- I could go on and on.

There are things that we have in common, the best I can tell. We want you to judge us for our spirit not just our physical bodies. We don’t want you to think you know who we are or judge us due to the body we were born in. We want you to get and respect our energy, our spirit and value that, more then the exterior package we came in or who we love. We want you to understand that gender and sexuality are not black and white, and just let us be who we are and not try and put us in a box. We Don’t fit! We want you to be willing and open to explore even though you don’t totally understand, because really we don’t totally understand; we are just being, like you. I am not saying that we should not celebrate our uniqueness. I am saying that I feel that seeing our connectedness helps us realize our humanness. Our commonalities and seeing this humanness helps us be more compassionate and understanding of the diversity.

Lets give one another the freedom to be whomever you are. We can all be free; what an amazing concept. We are all forced by this confining society to be or present as things to please or fit into this convoluted world that are not really true to us. We all wear some mask and put them on to make it in this judgmental, world in order to survive and have some simulation of success.

You want to know what Pride is about to me? It’s really simple. I don’t really think that what I want as an LGBTQI person is different from what anyone else wants. The freedom to be who ever they are and be respected, seen, heard and loved. Is that not what we all desire? I think the thing that freaks many people out is that we are not really so different – we are your neighbors, your co-workers, your brothers, sisters, your friends and yes even your lovers. Some may not be able to be open and out about who they really are because they feel like they cannot, yet we are there beside you, in your communities and as your comrades. In some places we do not have the freedom to talk about this side of who we are because we would immediately be judged, lose jobs, not get hired, or not be safe. Even though being LGBTQI has nothing to do with the way we work, love or have compassion for others.

Why do we treat people like this in what is supposed to be the most free society in the world? Why don’t we judge, if we have to judge at all by the way a person moves in this world and treats others. By how they love, how they give, the compassion they have, the difference they make, by how brave they are or how the inspire others? I don’t understand the trivial things our society judges by. There is no easy way to make all of these changes, just try, open your eyes and see each person, straight, gay, trans, queer, bi, black, white, yellow, red, short, tall, skinny, big, whomever, for their spirit, heart, soul and how they walk this journey of life. When we begin to spend more time focusing on our commonalities then our small differences we will understand that we are all connected and then we can all have pride in who we are.

Actually here is part of the truth.http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/stonewall-mafia/
Nobody seems to ever talk about why stonewall really happened..
I guess for fear of retribution. But the issues the LGBTQ dealt with then at stonewall are still happening today..but everyone turns a blind eye. Pbs in the above story only touched on a portion of the truth.
What about todays “stonewall”?